German doctors apologize for Holocaust horrors

gimmesometruth27gimmesometruth27 St. Fuckin Louis Posts: 23,303
edited May 2012 in A Moving Train
this is big...

should have happened in the mid to late 1940s though...

German doctors apologize for Holocaust horrors

http://vitals.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/ ... rrors?lite

The German Medical Association has issued a remarkably blunt and straightforward apology, more than six decades after the end of World War II, for the role it played during the Holocaust in the mass murder, sterilization and barbaric medical experiments done on Jews and many other groups.

The apology, made Wednesday at the Bundesärztekammer (German Medical Association) meeting in Nuremberg, makes no excuses.

Unanimously adopted by the delegates of the Physician's Congress, the declaration says that contrary to popular belief doctors were not forced by political authorities to kill and experiment on prisoners but rather engaged in the Holocaust as leaders and enthusiastic Nazi supporters.

The apology notes that “outstanding representatives of renowned academic medical and research institutions were involved” in organizing and carrying out the mass extermination of millions.
In the statement, the German doctors said they “remember the living and deceased victims and their descendants and ask them for forgiveness."

I don’t know if forgiveness will be forthcoming. But in the history of apologies for crimes and abuses carried out in the name of medicine this is the most important ever made. It does nothing to soften the horror of the Holocaust but it both ascribes responsibility where it belongs and ends any further efforts to deny or obfuscate what actually happened.

My father was there to see some of it. On April 29, 1945, Army Sgt. Sidney D. Caplan was among the troops that liberated the Dachau death camp outside of Munich Germany. By the end of the war, nearly 6 million Jews and countless others had been killed.

The Nuremberg trials that followed the defeat of the German Reich showed the intimate role that medicine had played in the Holocaust. Many know about Dr. Josef Mengele's gruesome experiments, but now the actions of mainstream medicine have been acknowledged.

German medicine as field has remained silent about it all these decades – until today.
The world must still grapple with the Holocaust as genocide carried out in the name of science and medicine. But it no longer needs to try and push those involved in German medicine to speak about their role. They have done so and they deserve full credit for it.

The world should acknowledge that medicine has finally stared its worst crimes directly in the face and shuddered.
"You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry."  - Lincoln

"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • hedonisthedonist Posts: 24,524
    "finally stared its worst crimes directly in the face and shuddered"

    Still don't know why it took so long, as you mentioned.

    "not forced by political authorities to kill and experiment on prisoners but rather engaged in the Holocaust as leaders and enthusiastic Nazi supporters"

    Not forced to, yet did...enthusiastically and with leadership?

    Well hell!


    Nah, I don't really see forgiveness coming from me.
  • brianluxbrianlux Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 42,426
    The sad thing is (and this has been proven) that under the right conditions, the same things that happened in Germany during that time could have happened in any number of countries. Germany is not the only country to have committed genocide. Look at our own country and the American Indians.

    Let's hope we've all learned something from these horrible histories.
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  • Jason PJason P Posts: 19,156
    Did any of the doctors that apologize have anything to do with the atrocities? If so, they should be put to trial. If not, it's symbolic, but really what difference does it make?

    I guess since I'm a US citizen, I can apologize to the Native Americans for what our government did. Does my apology count or do I have to be an elected official?

    I'm not trying to make light of the situation (well, maybe a little), but my point is that the assholes that did the evil crimes are not the ones apologizing.
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  • catefrancescatefrances Posts: 29,003
    Jason P wrote:
    Did any of the doctors that apologize have anything to do with the atrocities? If so, they should be put to trial. If not, it's symbolic, but really what difference does it make?

    I guess since I'm a US citizen, I can apologize to the Native Americans for what our government did. Does my apology count or do I have to be an elected official?

    I'm not trying to make light of the situation (well, maybe a little), but my point is that the assholes that did the evil crimes are not the ones apologizing.

    they are apologising on behalf of a profession that swears to uphold the value of life and yet during a particularly dark time in their history.. their own history as a professionals when this wasnt the case.

    id imagine the arseholes that did the crimes are dead.
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  • peacefrompaulpeacefrompaul Posts: 25,293
    Jason P wrote:
    Did any of the doctors that apologize have anything to do with the atrocities? If so, they should be put to trial. If not, it's symbolic, but really what difference does it make?

    I guess since I'm a US citizen, I can apologize to the Native Americans for what our government did. Does my apology count or do I have to be an elected official?

    I'm not trying to make light of the situation (well, maybe a little), but my point is that the assholes that did the evil crimes are not the ones apologizing.

    they are apologising on behalf of a profession that swears to uphold the value of life and yet during a particularly dark time in their history.. their own history as a professionals when this wasnt the case.

    id imagine the arseholes that did the crimes are dead.

    For the most part, the guys that did it are still being hunted down. Fat chance of them coming out and apologizing... Whoever is left is probably still in hiding.
  • catefrancescatefrances Posts: 29,003
    Jason P wrote:
    Did any of the doctors that apologize have anything to do with the atrocities? If so, they should be put to trial. If not, it's symbolic, but really what difference does it make?

    I guess since I'm a US citizen, I can apologize to the Native Americans for what our government did. Does my apology count or do I have to be an elected official?

    I'm not trying to make light of the situation (well, maybe a little), but my point is that the assholes that did the evil crimes are not the ones apologizing.

    they are apologising on behalf of a profession that swears to uphold the value of life and yet during a particularly dark time in their history.. their own history as a professionals when this wasnt the case.

    id imagine the arseholes that did the crimes are dead.

    For the most part, the guys that did it are still being hunted down. Fat chance of them coming out and apologizing... Whoever is left is probably still in hiding.

    well remember once the germans surrendered all the nazis disappeared one way or another. ;)8-)
    hear my name
    take a good look
    this could be the day
    hold my hand
    lie beside me
    i just need to say
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